US: Pemberton faces discharge, no court-martial

MANILA, Philippines — The US serviceman who was found guilty of killing a Filipino transgender six years ago but was pardoned by President Duterte would be discharged even if he does not face court martial, Malacañang said yesterday.

Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said last Monday that US officials have given assurance that Marine Lance Corporal Joseph Scott Pemberton, who was convicted of homicide over the death of transgender Jennifer Laude, would face a military court once he returns home.

However, a spokesperson for the US Marine Corps has been quoted by a news website as saying that Pemberton would no longer undergo court martial proceedings.

Maj. Melanie Salinas of the Marine Corps’ Communication Directorate told BenarNews that Pemberton would not be tried a second time for the same crime, “consistent with the due process traditions shared by the United States and the Philippines.”

Pemberton, however, would be processed for administrative discharge, the report said.

“That’s a decision of the US government,” Roque, a former lawyer of the Laude family, said at a press briefing when asked to react to the BenarNews report. “Although I take note that they have said that he will be processed for administrative discharge. Meaning, he will be fired as a Marine.”

Revisions in GCTA manual complete

In a related development, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra yesterday announced the completion of revisions of the uniform manual for the computation of good conduct time allowance (GCTA) for persons deprived of liberty or PDLs.

A year after they started working on the revisions, he said the joint oversight committee of the Departments of Justice and of the Interior and Local Government finally completed its task. Copies of the document would be printed and distributed to the jails run by the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) and the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor).

Guevarra said in an interview over CNN Philippines that they “immediately went to the preparations of the updated manual which would be uniformly used by both the BJMP, those are the city jails; and also the BuCor prison and provincial jails.”

“It is just a matter of printing it so actual copies can be sent to the various wardens of the jails and prison facilities and prison farms across the country,” he added.

According to Guevarra, the issues pertaining to heinous crimes were made clearer “so that our wardens and the people in charge of assessing and granting GCTA would be able to understand.” – Evelyn Macairan